tion is of an applied character; that is to say the carcase of the building was built first, and was allowed to take its bearings before the mosaics and the marble linings for the doors, windows and walls were added."-F. M. Simpson, History of architectural development, v. 1, p. 213, 214, 219."If the architectural type of the basilica, characterised by its rectangular plan and flat roof, predominates in the churches in Italy, those of Constantinople applied and developed the principle of the dome. The great church of Byzantium, St. Sophia, was built between 532 and 562 under Justinian, by Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletus, that is to say, by Asiatic architects. We have seen that the cupola was known to the Assyrians; the tradition had been preserved in Persia, whence it spread into Syria towards the third century after Christ, passing from Syria into Asia Minor in the following centuries. The architects of St. Sophia were probably inspired by Asiatic models, and not by the Roman Pantheon."-S. Reinach, Apollo, P. 99. "Byzantine architecture at its best, which really means as seen in the interior of Hagia Sophia (for there is nothing else equal to that) is a remarkable combination of qualities not often found together; it seems to combine the refinement of Greek detail with the warmth and the colour of Oriental art. From the coldness and the superficial and pompous spirit of display which characterize Roman architecture, it is as alien as possible."-H. H. Statham, Short critical history of architecture, p. 219.-See also BYZANTINE EMPIRE: Part in history; SAINT SOPHIA.

MEDIEVAL

large nave with a horizontal roof, and of two lower side-aisles; the central nave is lighted by windows above the side-aisles. At the end is a gate called the Triumphal Arch, behind which is the altar; the end wall is circular and forms the apse. Both apse and triumphal arch are richly decorated with glass mosaics on a blue or gold ground, the splendour of which rivals that of goldsmiths' enamels. . . . These mosaics ornament the vertical walls and the vaults, instead of forming pavements as in the Roman houses and temples. Specimens of them, very beautiful in colour, and grandiose though frigid in style, are to be seen in Rome, and at Ravenna, which was the seat of the Roman Court from 404, the residence of Theodoric, King of the Goths, about 500, and an appanage of Byzantium from 534 to 752. Several churches of the sixth century still exist, as Sant' Apollinare Nuovo, Sant' Apollinare in Classe (on the ancient port) and San Vitale: the last is a circular domed building, in which Byzantine influences are very apparent; the others are basilicas, the interiors of which are striking and majestic, though their external aspect is neither graceful nor dignified."-S. Reinach, Apollo, pp. 98-99.

Mohammedan: Origin and development.General characteristics.-"The Sassanian empire was brought to an end by the sudden expansion of Mohammedanism. In a few years from the flight of its prophet from Mecca (622), his followers conquered Mesopotamia (637), Egypt (638), Persia (642), northern Africa and Spain (711).

At first Mohammedan architecture in these regions was little else than the art of the different conquered peoples adapted to the worship and the customs of the conquerors. In Syria, in Egypt, and in Spain the Romano-Byzantine column and arch were employed for the construction of buildings such as the mosque of Amru at Cairo (642). or the great mosques of Damascus and Cordova (785-848). In Mesopotamia and Persia the domed and vaulted halls of the Sassar.ians (q. v.) were adopted as prominent features of the designs. Besides the uniformity of the programs, however, a certain community of artistic character between different regions soon developed-a character pronouncedly Oriental. This was due in part to the taste and the traditions of the Arabs themselves. but more largely to the earlier conquest of the Eastern lands, the prestige of these as the seat of the early caliphates of Damascus and Bagdad, and the vitality of Eastern art as the general source of inspiration in the early Middle Ages. Thus the lace-like incised carving of Mschatta in Syria. which had earlier contributed to Byzantine development, now appeared in the earliest Arab monuments of Africa and Spain. Thus, too, the pointed arch, common in Persia from the eighth century, appeared in Syria and Egypt from the beginning of the ninth. The tall dome of pointed silhouette, and the court with vaulted halls abutting it also Persian features-penetrated Egypt in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The conquest of northern India and its conversion to Mohammedanism opened the way for Persian influence there in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, while Persia itself then borrowed from India the ogee arch and the bulbous dome. With the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks (1453), finally, began a new return in fluence of Byzantine architecture in their Oriental empire, through the imitation of Hagia Sophia [Saint Sophia], which became the chief mosque of the Turkish caliphs. The development of the various schools which resulted from the mingling of local traditions and distinct influences continued

Early Christian: New spirit in architecture. -"The debt of universal architecture to the early Christian and Byzantine schools of builders is very great. They evolved the church types, they carried far the exploration of domical construction, and made wonderful balanced compositions of vaults and domes over complex plans. They formed the belfry tower from the Pharos and fortification towers. We owe to them the idea of the vaulted basilican church, which, spreading westward over Europe, made our great vaulted cathedrals possible. They entirely recast the secondary forms of architecture: 'the column was taught to carry an arch,' the capital was reconsidered as a bearing block and became a feature of extraordinary beauty. The art of building was made free from formulas, and architecture became an adventure in building once more. We owe to them a new type of moulding, the germ of the Gothic system, by the introduction of the rollmoulding and their application of it to 'strings' and the margins of doors. The first arch known to me which has a series of roll-mouldings is in the palace of M'shatta [Mashetta]. The tendency to cast windows into groups, the ultimate source of tracery, and the foiling of arches, has already been mentioned. We owe to Christian artists the introduction of delightfully fresh ornamentation, crisp foliage, and interlaces, and the whole scheme of Christian iconography."-W. R. Lethaby, Architecture, pp. 155-156-"The Christian Church is a place for the gathering together of the faithful, thus differing essentially from the pagan temple, which was the abode of the divinity. The first Christian churches were accordingly modelled on those enclosed places of assembly known as basilicas. [q. v.] ... Among the Roman basilicas, that of St. Paul without-the-Walls, built by Constantine and restored after a fire in 1823, may be cited as a characteristic example. It consists of a

ARCHITECTURE, MEDIEVAL

uninterruptedly until the eighteenth and even the nineteenth century, and has been checked only by internal disorganization and by the conquests of European powers. . . . For their formal places of worship, the mosques, the early believers naturally adopted the peristylar court-the universal scheme of the Levant-the porticoes of which furnished shelter from the tropical sun. The Mirhab, a small niche in the outer wall, indicated the direction of Mecca, and on this side of the court the porticoes were deepened and multiplied. This fundamental scheme is seen in the first great mosque built after the conquest of Egypt, the mosque of Amru at Cairo. [See also AMRU, MOSQUE OF.] The tendency was to develop the deeper side of the court into an inclosed building-often of vast extent, as at Cordova-with aisle after aisle of columns and arcades, carrying wooden beams and a terrace roof. In later western mosques the aisle leading to the mirhab was widened, and a special sanctuary preceded by a vast open nave or niche was early adopted, and corresponding features were introduced at the other cardinal points of the court. The Egyptian mosques based on Persian models, such as the mosque of Sultan Hassan, have a court so reduced that these features occupy the greater part of each side, and the scheme becomes cruciform. On the capture of Constantinople, Hagia Sophia-with its atrium, its main building to the east, its great central nave, and its eastern apsewas found perfectly adapted to Mohammedan worship. It was copied almost literally in the Mosque of Suleiman at Constantinople (1550). In other Ottoman mosques the possible variants were used, especially the scheme of a central dome with four abutting half domes, which the Byzantines themselves had not developed. Among minor elements of the mosques, which are yet among their most striking features, are the minarets, or slender towers, with corbeled balconies from which the muezzin gives the call to prayers. These were erected at one or more of the corners of the buildings, ingeniously incorporated with it. Their forms varied much in different regions, the Ottoman form, with a very tall cylindrical shaft ending in a slender cone, being especially daring. The enjoyment of worldly goods and pleasures was not despised by Mohammedanism, and the absolute power and vast revenue of the caliphs enabled them to gratify their taste for splendor and luxury by the construction of magnificent palaces. . . . The rooms were distributed about one or more courts, the façades made as blind as possible, except for loggias and balconies high above the ground and guarded by latticed screens. To relieve the heat of the climate, the courts were surrounded by shady porticoes and provided with basins and fountains. A complex axial system governed the relations of the principal rooms and the courts. The luxurious elegance sometimes attained is well seen in the Alhambra at Granada, built by the last Mohammedan rulers of Spain, chiefly in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The Court of Lions, with its slender columns, its delicate stalactite decoration in stucco, colored and gilded, shows Mohammedan architecture in the final development of one of its local schools, when the elements of diverse origin had been fused in a characteristic whole. [See also ALHAMBRA.] Egypt, in Persia, and especially in India, the tombs of great monarchs rival the palaces and mosques. The Indian type was a domed mausoleum, set in the midst of a garden. The most noted example is the Taj Mahal at Agra [q. v.], built by Shah Jahan in 1630, in which the central dome is flanked by four smaller domes, and the

ARCHITECTURE, MEDIEVAL

principal, minor, and diagonal axes are marked on the exterior by great arches expressively and harmoniously proportioned. The Mohammedan builders were confronted by few structural problems for which solutions had not already been found by late Roman, Byzantine, and Sassanian architecture. At first, like the early Christian builders, they employed borrowed classical columns and capitals, supporting impost blocks and stilted arches. Their early domes rested on squinches. Later their treatment of fundamental structural elements, such as the arch and the vault, was governed by decorative conceptions. In Spain and Africa arches were given a horseshoe shape or were cusped; in Persia, Egypt, and Spain vaults were treated with a multitude of small squinches resembling stalactites. Stalactite motives were also used in some capitals, although in others modified Corinthian motives were used, much as in the most expressive Gothic examples. The ornamentation depended little on effects of bold relief, but greatly on effects of line, of material, and, above all, of color. The prohibition against representing man and animals, with the mathematical bent of the Arabs, resulted in a geometrical ornament of interlacing figures, extraordinarily fertile and intricate. Precious materials were freely used; in Persia whole buildings were faced with colored and glazed faience in patterns suggested by rugs and textiles."-F. Kimball and G. H. Edgell, History of architecture, pp. 573-579.

Coptic: Relation to Byzantine.-"A side glance should be bestowed, in passing, on the evidences of Byzantine influence to be seen in the plans of some of the ancient Coptic churches of Egypt-not very certainly dated, but of a period probably not long subsequent to the rise of Byzantine architecture at Constantinople. These are mostly of the aisle type of plan, but combined with square domed compartments which are obviously of Byzantine suggestion. The plan of the church of Deïr-Baramous with its three domed compartments at the east end, given by Gayet in his work on Coptic art, may be taken as a typical example. The nave is barrel-vaulted, and there is no central dome, but the three domed compartments betray Byzantine influence. As is pertinently remarked by Mr. Russell Sturgis in the article, 'Coptic Architecture,' in his dictionary: argues great vitality in the Coptic architecture proper, that, in the sixth century, it did not take over the Byzantine style in its completeness.' Coptic architecture, however, can only now be regarded as a back-water outside of the main stream of architectural development."-H. H. Statham, Short critical history of architecture, pp. 209-210

'It

Romanesque. "The term Romanesque is here used to indicate a style of Christian architecture, founded on Roman art, which prevailed throughout Western Europe from the close of the period of basilican architecture to the rise of Gothic; except in those isolated districts where the influence of Byzantium is visible. By some writers the significance of the word is restricted within narrower limits; but excellent authorities can be adduced for the employment of it in the wide sense here indicated. Indeed some difficulty exists in deciding what shall and what shall not be termed Romanesque, if any more restricted definition of its meaning is adopted; while under this general term, if applied broadly, many closely allied local varieties-as, for example, Lombard, Rhenish, Romance, Saxon, and Norman-can be conveniently included."-T. R. Smith and J. Slater, Architecture, p. 222.-"Our Romanesque and our Gothic are not two styles but one style. Gothic

In

is perfected Romanesque; Romanesque is Gothic not fully developed, nor carried structurally to its logical conclusion."-F. Bond, Gothic architecture in England, p. 12.

LOMBARD AND GERMAN.-"By degrees, as buildings of greater extent and more ornament were erected, the local varieties . . . began to develop themselves. In Lombardy and North Italy, for example, a Lombard Romanesque style can be recognised distinctly; here a series of churches were built, many of them vaulted, but not many of the largest size. Most of them were on substantially the same plan as the Basilicas, though a considerable number of circular or polygonal churches were also built. Sant' Ambrogio at Milan, and some of the churches at Brescia, Pavia, and Lucca, may be cited as well-known examples of early date, and a little later the cathedrals of Parma, Modena, and Piacenza, and San Zenone at Verona. These churches are all distinguished by the free use of small ornamental arches and narrow pilaster-strips externally, and the employment of piers with half-shafts attached to them, rather than columns, in the arcades; they have fine belltowers; circular windows often occupy the gables, and very frequently the walls have been built of, or ornamented with, coloured materials. The sculpture-grotesque, vigorous, and full of rich variety-which distinguishes many of these buildings, and which is to be found specially enriching the doorways, is of great interest, and began early to develop a character that is quite distinctive. Turning to Germany, we find that a very strong resemblance existed between the Romanesque churches of that country and those of North Italy. At Aix-la-Chapelle [q. v.] a polygonal church exists, built by Charlemagne, which tradition asserts was designed on the model of San Vitale at Ravenna. The resemblance is undoubted, but the German church is by no means an exact copy of Justinian's building. Early examples of German Romanesque exist in the cathedrals of Mayence, Worms, and Spires."-T. R. Smith and J. Slater, Architecture, PP. 224-225. "The Romanesque of Germany is, on the whole the most distinctly national of the country's styles. [It] was extremely prolific and lingered longer than in any other country. . . The most striking and typically German characteristic of the style is its complexity and picturesqueness, acquired by a multiplication of architectural members."-F. Kimball and G. H. Edgell, History of architecture, pp. 242-243.

FRENCH AND NORMAN.-"France exhibits more than one variety of Romanesque; for not only is the influence of Greek or Venetian artists traceable in the buildings of certain districts, especially Perigueux, but it is clear that in others the existence of fine examples of Roman architecture affected the design of buildings down to and during the eleventh century. This influence may, for example, be detected in the use, in the churches at Autun, Valence, and Avignon, of capitals, pilasters, and in the employment through a great part of Central and Northern France of vaulted roofs. A specially French feature is the chevet, a group of apsidal chapels which were combined with it to make of the east end of a great cathedral a singularly rich and ornate composition. This feature, originating in Romanesque churches, was retained in France through the whole of the Gothic period, and a good example of it may be seen in the large Romanesque church of St. Sernin at Toulouse.... In Normandy, and generally in the North of France, round-arched architecture was excellently carried out, and churches remarkable both for their extent and their great dignity and

solidity were erected. Generally speaking, however, Norman architecture, especially as met with in Normandy itself, is less ornate than the Romanesque of Southern France; in fact some of the best examples seem to suffer from a deficiency of ornament. The large and well-known churches at Caen, St. Etienne, otherwise the Abbaye aux Hommes-interesting to Englishmen as having been founded by William the Conqueror immediately after the Conquest-and the Trinité, or Abbaye aux Dames, are excellent examples of early Norman architecture. . . . In Great Britain, as has been already pointed out, enough traces of Saxon -that is to say, Primitive Romanesque-architecture remain to show that many simple, though comparatively rude, buildings must have been erected previous to the Norman Conquest. . . . Shortly after the Conquest distinctive features began to show themselves. Norman architecture in England soon became essentially different from what it was in Normandy, and we possess in this country a large series of fine works showing the growth of this imported style, from the early simplicity of the chapel in the Tower of London to such elaboration as that of the later parts of Durham Cathedral. The number of churches founded or rebuilt soon after the Norman Conquest must have been enormous, for in examining churches of every date and in every part of England it is common to find some fragment of Norman work remaining from a former church: this is very frequently a doorway left standing or built into walls of later date; and, in addition to these fragments, no small number of churches, and more than one cathedral, together with numerous castles. remain in whole or in part as they were erected by the original builders. Norman architecture is considered to have prevailed in England for more than a century; that is to say, from the Conquest (1066) to the accession of Richard I. (1189). The oldest remaining parts of Canterbury Cathedral are specimens of Norman architecture executed in England immediately after the Conquest. More complete and equally ancient is the chapel in the Tower of London, which consists of a small apsidal church with nave and aisles, vaulted throughout, and in excellent preservation. This building, though very charming, is almost destitute of ornament. A little more ornate, and still a good example of early Norman, is St. Peter's Church, Northampton. . . To these examples of early Norman we may add a large part of Rochester Cathedral, and the transepts of Winchester. The transepts of Exeter present a specimen of rather more advanced Norman work; and in the cathedrals of Peterborough and Durham the style can be seen at its best. [The parish church at Iffley is also a notable example.] In most Norman buildings we find very excellent masonry and massive construction. The exteriors of west fronts, transepts, and towers show great skill and care in their composition, the openings being al ways well grouped, and contrasted with plain wallspaces; and a keen sense of proportion is percep tible. The Norman architects had at command a rich, if perhaps a rather rude, ornamentation, which they generally confined to individual features, especially doorways; on these they lavished mouldings and sculpture, the elaboration of which was set off by the plainness of the general structure. In the interior of the churches we usually meet with piers of massive proportion, sometimes round, sometimes octagonal, sometimes rectangular, and a shaft is sometimes carried up the face of the piers; as, for example, in Peterborough Cathedral The capitals of the columns and piers have a

square abacus, [q. v.] and, generally speaking, are of the cushion-shaped sort, commonly known as basket capitals, and are profusely carved. The larger churches have the nave roofed with a timber roof, and at Peterborough there is a wooden ceiling; in these cases the aisles only are vaulted, but in some small churches the whole building has been so covered. Buttresses are seldom required, owing to the great mass of the walls; when employed they have a very slight projection, but the same strips or pilasters which are used in German Romanesque occur here also. Low towers were common, and have been not infrequently preserved in cases where the rest of the building has been removed. As the style advanced, the proportions of arcades became more lofty, and shafts became more slender, decorative arcades became more common, and in these and many other changes the approaching transition to Gothic may be easily detected."-T. R. Smith and J. S. Slater, Architecture, pp. 226-235.-See also CATHEDRAL.

dency to rely upon the length for sublimity of effect, rather than upon height, as did the French architects. It has, however, been made a reproach to the English Gothic artists that they made an excessive use of vertical lines, especially in their windows. In 1174, a French architect, William of Sens, rebuilt the cathedral of Canterbury which had been, for the second time, destroyed by fire. The choir of Lincoln was built from 1190 to 1200, that of Westminster Abbey from 1245 to 1269; Salisbury from 1220 to 1258. Everywhere else, the French type prevailed. Chartres and Bourges were the models for Spain; Noyon and Laon were imitated at Lausanne and at Bamberg (the towers); Cologne [q. v.] is a combination of Amiens and Beauvais. The country which least readily assimilated the Gothic style was Italy (Milan Cathedral). The Romanesque churches did not disappear here; there is an unbroken continuity between them and the buildings of the Renaissance, whereas Gothic art intervenes as a brilliant episode, the apogee of which was but little removed from its decline. Three periods have been discerned in Gothic architecture, determined by the shape and decoration of the windows; to these the terms à lancettes (lancet-shaped) or Primitive, Rayonnant or Secondary, and Flamboyant or Third Period, are applied in France, while in England three distinct periods are also recognised, and generically distinguished as Thirteenth Century, or Early English; Fourteenth Century, or Decorated, and Fifteenth Century, or Perpendicular. But all these terms are somewhat loosely applied. It will be enough to say here that the principle of Gothic architecture led it on incessantly to increase the height of vaults, to enlarge open spaces and windows, to multiply belfries and pinnacles. The Gothic churches of the fifteenth century are both mannered, and alarming in the overslenderness of their structure. Gothic art was not crushed by the art of the Renaissance; it fell a victim to its inherent fragility. Churches were not the sole fruit of Gothic art, though the cathedral is its most perfect expression. Among the monuments of its later period are the beautiful town-halls of Flemish cities, which rose confronting the churches, with belfries containing the municipal bells, as if to symbolise the growth of a new power, that of the civic laity. Other productions were magnificent abbeys [see also ABBEY: Abbeys in history, and Architectural features] notably that of Mont St. Michel, and charming private houses, such as the Hôtel de Cluny in Paris, and Jacques Cour's House at Bourges. Fortified castles, and keeps, or donjons (from the Latin dominium) in the Romanesque style had multiplied from the tenth century onwards. The exigencies of defence forbade the full acceptance in these of a style in which open spaces predominated; but Gothic art inspired the interior arrangement, the decoration of the doors, the windows, and the roof; it will suffice to instance the castles of La Ferté-Milon and Pierrefonds, dating from the close of the fourteenth century, buildings which have been justly eulogised for 'their imposing masses, their noble outlines, the Doric pride and frankness of their perpendicular design.'"-S. Reinach, Apollo, pp. 116-117.-The Spanish use of the Gothic was freer and more genuine than that of Germany or Italy, and although the French influence was dominant, certain characteristic features of plan and proportion were developed, notably increased width of nave, position of choir, internal buttresses and wide vaulting. The Gothic style in Spain and also in southern Italy and Sicily is noteworthy for Saracen influence, as evidenced by rich surface decora

Gothic: Full development of vaulting.-Artistic value,-Centers of diffusion.-"In Gothic the possibilities of Romanesque reach their logical conclusions. More analytically and completely the vault determines the rest of the structure. Downward stress and lateral thrusts have been analyzed; they have been gathered up and then distributed in currents of pressure exerted along the lines of the ribs of the vaulting. Each thrust or stress is met by separate support of pillar or colonnette, or by directly counteracting pressure of pier and flying buttress. Through these the weight and lateral thrusts of the building are conducted downward and outward in channels as definite as the gutters which lead the rain-water from the roof. More especially the devices of rib and flying buttress have faciliated the use of the pointed arch, and have lifted Romanesque from the earth; while the confinement of stresses to definite channels has enabled the architect to replace opaque walls with a many-colored translucency of glass, in which the Christian story is painted in the light of heaven. The architectural ornament emphasizes the structure of the building as determined by the requirements of the vault. Constructively, artistically, and symbolically, the ornament of a Gothic church completes and perfects it and renders it articulate. The strength of the building is in its ribs and arches, columns, piers, and flying buttresses. Their sustaining forms render this strength visible.”— H. O. Taylor, Classical heritage of the Middle Ages, PP. 311-312.-"If the aim of architecture, considered as an art, should be to free itself as much as possible from subjection to its materials, it may be said that no buildings have more successfully realized this idea than the Gothic churches."-S. Reinach, Apollo, p. 118.-"The new style evolved with great rapidity. The Gothic choir of the Abbey Church of St. Denis was begun in 1144, the Church of Noyon in 1150, Nôtre Dame (Paris) in 1163, Bourges in 1172, Chartres in 1194, Reims in 1211, Amiens in 1215. [See also AMIENS, Cathedral of.] The Sainte-Chapelle of Paris was consecrated in 1248. From the north of France the Gothic type-propagated more especially by the monks of Citeaux-passed into Alsace (Strasburg, 1277), into Germany (Cologne, 1248), into Italy (Milan), into Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Bohemia, and Hungary. The French Crusaders introduced it into the island of Cyprus and into Syria. In England, it assumed a national character, the main features of which were a greater structural sobriety and care for solidity, combined later with more richness and beauty in the ribbing of vaults and in ornament generally, and a ten